Sunday, June 11. 2006

'An Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda have been funding their activities by kidnapping Christian boys and selling them into slavery.

Gul Khan, a senior member of Jamaat-ud Daawa (JUD), used the group's base in Muridke near Lahore to trade boys aged six to 12. The children were abducted from remote Christian villages in the Punjab and sold for nearly £1,000 each to buyers wanting domestic slaves or sex-workers. Christians in Pakistan are treated as second-class citizens and tend to be among the poorest in society.

Khan was exposed when a group of American and Pakistani missionaries posed as potential buyers to try to rescue enslaved children, according to The Sunday Times.

His base was reportedly funded by Osama bin Laden in the late-1990s. JUD was designated a terrorist organisation and its assets frozen by the US Treasury in April.'

'Most media organizations throughout the world, including in the US, have failed to adequately cover this story. Media critics believe there is little interest by reporters because the victims happen to be Christians. One intelligence expert claims that had this been a case of Christians mistreating Muslims, the story would be plastered on the frontpages of the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.'

Gul Shah was the name of a principal villain in Flashman, the first in George MacDonald Frazer's 'Flashman' books.-Ed

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